Battery longevity, location, and venting

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>]

My wife's 1991 164 base, build date mid-1990, came with a Delco battery; I
assumed it was just a dealer substitution but have since been told that the
Delcos were installed at the port. It died in mid-August 2001, after eleven
years of service. I attributed the relatively long life to both luck and the
trunk location, but have been told that that service life is not unusual. I
replaced it with an Interstate 31-P-MHD on the recommendation of Peter Krause,
switching brands both because I trust his judgment and because I would rather
support the local Alfa-support than an unrelated business. Both that Delco and
that Interstate are vented to the outside, answering the
acidic-gasses-in-closed-corrodible-spaces problem mentioned by Bart and
others. The Interstate was not cheap, but if it comes close to matching the
Delco longevity, a prorated $9-a-year is a lot cheaper than any of the
warranty-plus-one-month Diehards which have usually replaced the short-lived
Italian batteries my prior Alfas came with, and in the future I will gladly
pay a considerable premium to have an outside-vented battery in a trunk
location.

John H.

Raleigh, N.C.

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